Hello Saddlebag Notes friends. I’m Emma, your cheerful little white dog in SaddleBrooke. In this column, I share a dog’s-eye view on life by answering thoughtful questions with kindness, gentle humor, and a bit of tail-wagging wisdom.
You can follow more of my adventures and photos on my blog, Life With Emma in the Desert, at emmathewhitedog.com.
Dear Emma:
I recently saw you on a walk with your dad, and you seemed to be doing a lot of sniffing in a relaxed way. But at other times, you and other dogs seem to be walking fast and determined. Do dogs ever feel rushed and stressed? —CuriousInTheDesert
Dear CuriousInTheDesert: A Tail of Two Walks
That is a paws-itively excellent question! You’ve caught me partaking in what my Dad and I like to call a "Sniffari." It’s true—if you watch the dogs in our neighborhood closely, you'll notice we have a few different gears when we're out on our daily patrols.
To answer your first question: Yes, those relaxed, sniff-heavy walks are my absolute favorite. You see, a dog’s nose is our primary way of seeing the world. While humans have about six million scent receptors, my little Bichon-Poodle nose has hundreds of millions! When I’m ambling along with my nose glued to the ground, I’m not just dawdling. I’m reading the morning news. I’m checking to see if the Golden Retriever down the street passed by, figuring out which desert critters were out last night, and leaving a few "comments" of my own on the local message boards. This kind of walking is deeply relaxing and mentally stimulating for us.
But what about those times we look like we're late for a very important business meeting? You’re highly observant to notice the shift in gears. Do we feel rushed? Absolutely. But here is the secret: the rush almost always comes from the human on the other end of the leash.
Dogs don't wear watches. We don't have deadlines for submitting newspaper columns (well, except for me, but Dad handles the details) and we certainly don't care what time the golf group is teeing off. We live entirely in the present moment. However, we are incredibly in tune with our humans. When Dad is in a hurry, his energy shifts. His stride lengthens, his posture stiffens and most importantly, there’s a subtle tension on the leash. That tension travels right down to my collar. My doggy instincts tell me, "Dad is on a mission, so I need to be on a mission too!" We hurry because our humans are hurrying.
Sometimes, a fast walk is purely environmental. Living here in the desert, if the morning sun starts heating up the pavement, my paws tell me it's time to shift into overdrive and get back to the air conditioning!
So, do dogs feel stressed on walks? We certainly can, especially if our humans are treating the walk like a chore to be checked off a busy to-do list rather than a shared adventure.
My advice to all the dog parents out there? Take a deep breath. Let the leash go slack. Give us the gift of a ten-minute Sniffari. It lowers our stress, and honestly, I think it lowers your stress, too.
If you have a question for me, I’d love to hear it. You can email me at emmathewhitedog@gmail.com, mention you saw me in Saddlebag Notes, and I just might answer it in a future column.
With love and wagging optimism, stay paw-sitive!
Emma
